Disappointed and Horrified with the level of service provided by SunnyCove

[arsenalgirl]

Based on the recent package ( Open Water certification) my boyfriend and I took from Sunnycove, I would like to warn everyone out there not to use this dive school based in Singapore. and Paya Beach Resort ( Tioman)



1. Itinerary was not well planned and executed
There were several occurrences where the itinerary was changed at the last minute

Ž· Pool lesson - We had provided ample notice (about 2 weeks) that we wanted the pool lesson conducted on Sun, 12 Oct, 0900-1400. Yet, we were informed at the very last minute, Sat, 11 Oct, that it was changed to Wed, 15 Oct, 1845 as there were no instructors.

Ž· itinerary This was passed to us only on Fri, 17 Oct, the very day we were set to go for the trip

Ž· Meeting point From the initial meet-up at Queenstown, it was changed from Tanjong Pagar

Ž· Transport location and times were changed frequently especially the change/misinformed return ferry from Tioman. Due to SunnycoveÃÔ lack of efficient planning, we had to walk for an about an hour across the causeway with our luggage, despite being exhausted from the trip.



2. Pool lesson(s) were not conducted well (for Open Water Certification)
The instructors were not patient and in fact a little exasperated with me as I took a longer time (compared to the other 2 students) to complete all the tasks assigned during the 3 hour session. Thus, I scheduled another lesson the very next day (Thu, 16 Oct, 1830). To be better prepared, I checked if I could come down earlier and the name of the instructor giving the lesson. I was flatly refused.



3. Misrepresentation of information/Withholding of information
Most importantly of all, we were unhappy that Sunnycove decided not to be upfront with us on several issues including:

Ž· Transport This was the biggest issue from the start to the end.

o Coach ride to Mersing From Tanjong Pagar, we literally had to squeeze in with about 10 people and luggage into a 7-seater van. Needless to say, there was hardly any breathing space left. if it was a short ride, we would have no issues. But this was a 3 hour ride to Mersing.

o Return Ferry from Tioman - Misinformed on the return ferry from Tioman to (?). Instead of the given 2pm, the ferry only came at 5pm . Besides wasting 3 hours waiting , we had to arrange for our own transport (a cab)as we had we missed our ride to the causeway (JB Woodlands) . Unfortunately, the cab driver was unable to enter to Singapore and we had to walk by foot to cross the border.

Ž· Room arrangement

o My boyfriend and I were surprised that we had to share a room with a complete stranger, another student at the lodge for 2 nights. This was a real shock as we were not informed in any matter either verbally or via emails.

o Not informed of the room type we would be in we were misguided into thinking that we will be residing in one of the deluxe rooms at the resort. We ended staying in a lodge full of flies and a choked faucet.



4. Breakdown of cost
Although I had initially signed up for diving, I changed this to Non-diver as I was not feeling well and informed Sunnycove. I was told me that I shall go ahead as a non diver as I've paid the non refundable deposit of $100. The amount I was charged was $340.

This seems step as compared to other tours to Tioman ( Paya Beach Resort) which comes to a maximum of $160 maximum. Also, the lodge room which I shared with my 2 other people is RM$160 per night or SGD $22.41 per person Adding the one pool lesson which costs max SGD $60 ( the cost of the Discover Scuba Diving course as extracted from the sunnycove website). This would have only costs $220. Moreover, I had to rent my own snorkelling equipment when I snorkelled over at Tioman.


5. Terrible Customer Service
The resort had to have one of the worst customer service I had to contend with. From excitement for a new trip, it became exasperation when I was trying to get the itinerary. Matters just continued to get worse as I realized I had to stay in the lousiest resort IÃ×e been in my life with the clogged toilet, dirty room, unfriendly staff who refused to help me even though I asked for it.



Overall, it was the most horrid and unpleasant trip in my entire life.

6.Lastly, it has been more than 2 months and my boyfriend hasn't received his PADI open water certification and there have been no updates from SunnyCove as to when he'll get it.


Therefore, to all aspiring divers out there who are intending to get PADI certified, Please don't do it with Sunny Cove.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Great second post.

Did you take these complaints to the management of the company, and if so what was their response?

 

[SunnyCove]

Based on the recent package ( Open Water certification) my boyfriend and I took from Sunnycove, I would like to warn everyone out there not to use this dive school based in Singapore. and Paya Beach Resort ( Tioman)
I would like to thank "someone" highly important from this forum for informing me of this thread. I thank your boyfriend and yourself for taking the course from Sunny Cove but there are things which I felt were under report and majority are beyond our control even if tons of planning were put in placed.

1. Itinerary was not well planned and executed
There were several occurrences where the itinerary was changed at the last minute
Due to the unpredictable weather pattern in Malaysia, we had already indicated on our standard itinerary that it will be subjected to change when neccessary depending on the tide, weather and traffic condition. Unless we can control those variables, we can boldly state that we will reach in the specific timing. Hope you will understand.

Ž· Pool lesson - We had provided ample notice (about 2 weeks) that we wanted the pool lesson conducted on Sun, 12 Oct, 0900-1400. Yet, we were informed at the very last minute, Sat, 11 Oct, that it was changed to Wed, 15 Oct, 1845 as there were no instructors.
We apologize for that as most of our instructors were away on a last minute trip that crop up. We had a sudden increase of open water students out on trip and we cannot sacrafice safety aspect hence we need to deploy instructors on trip and postpone the pool session.

Ž· itinerary This was passed to us only on Fri, 17 Oct, the very day we were set to go for the trip
There are times we cannot even confirm the trip till last minute because of the weather. We were informed of a bad storm and had only been able to confirm the trip last minute too.

Ž· Meeting point From the initial meet-up at Queenstown, it was changed from Tanjong Pagar
Meeting point was originally at our location but as transport were changed to another area. I personally sent the entire group in my car to the meeting point without the need for the group to travel by their own. This was something I could do since we don't want you all the travel to another location on your own.

Ž· Transport location and times were changed frequently especially the change/misinformed return ferry from Tioman. Due to SunnycoveÃÔ lack of efficient planning, we had to walk for an about an hour across the causeway with our luggage, despite being exhausted from the trip.
I have to stress that we DO NOT own the ferry that is transversing between the jetty in Malaysia and the island. It is up to the ferry operators to decide what time to reach even when we were told of the arrival and departure timing hence again we had indicate on the itinerary that it is subjected to change.

Ferry timing in Malaysia had always been a big headache to many divers and not just your group. You may check with Blue Water Ferry at Mersing Jetty on this.


2. Pool lesson(s) were not conducted well (for Open Water Certification)
The instructors were not patient and in fact a little exasperated with me as I took a longer time (compared to the other 2 students) to complete all the tasks assigned during the 3 hour session. Thus, I scheduled another lesson the very next day (Thu, 16 Oct, 1830). To be better prepared, I checked if I could come down earlier and the name of the instructor giving the lesson. I was flatly refused.
First of all, there were 4 hours of practise session. If I'm not mistaken, your boyfriend and yourself were late for quite sometime because you were caught in a jam when the rest of the students were waiting for you at the pool.

We have to refused an early pool on the following day as the operating hours of the pool is from 1830hrs - 2230hrs. Please check with the pool operators on this. The pool is located in a school and they have operation hours. Again, we don't have a say on this.


3. Misrepresentation of information/Withholding of information
Most importantly of all, we were unhappy that Sunnycove decided not to be upfront with us on several issues including:

Ž· Transport This was the biggest issue from the start to the end.

o Coach ride to Mersing From Tanjong Pagar, we literally had to squeeze in with about 10 people and luggage into a 7-seater van. Needless to say, there was hardly any breathing space left. if it was a short ride, we would have no issues. But this was a 3 hour ride to Mersing.
I don't recall your transportation to be a van. I had arranged for a coach for 40 pax with another dive centre who was also heading up to Malaysia. They are the operator in charge of the coach. They happened to be a regular member of this forum too and we can get them to confirm this. For industry sake, I'm not going to list the dive centre's name.

o Return Ferry from Tioman - Misinformed on the return ferry from Tioman to (?). Instead of the given 2pm, the ferry only came at 5pm . Besides wasting 3 hours waiting , we had to arrange for our own transport (a cab)as we had we missed our ride to the causeway (JB Woodlands) . Unfortunately, the cab driver was unable to enter to Singapore and we had to walk by foot to cross the border.
As mentioned earlier, we do not know the exact timing of the ferry even when we were told beforehand. The captain of the boat decides to arrive early or late. When I knew about the late departure from the island, I had personally requested the earlier transportation to wait for you guys. As they had waited for 2 hours, they had no choice but to leave and WE were the one who requested the dive centre to arrange your cab as opposed to what you had mentioned.

One thing we didn't know was the cab driver didn't had his passport. After hearing this when the rest of the group are back, we did apologize to the group plus your boyfriend. You may check with him on this. I think this is a little unfair for us as we did our part when we knew about the situation and yet was quoted as being ignorant about the whole matter. Hope to have your understanding.

Ž· Room arrangement

o My boyfriend and I were surprised that we had to share a room with a complete stranger, another student at the lodge for 2 nights. This was a real shock as we were not informed in any matter either verbally or via emails.
All rooms are based on quad sharing. It's impossible for the price you had paid plus discount given to be a twin sharing price. I do apologize that perhaps this information was not stated clearly on the website.

o Not informed of the room type we would be in we were misguided into thinking that we will be residing in one of the deluxe rooms at the resort. We ended staying in a lodge full of flies and a choked faucet.
Sorry to say this but we didn't mislead you to think you will be getting the best of the best rooms in the resort. People are paying S$500 per room without transportation to and fro Singapore, marine park fees, rental of snorkeling equipment. How can we charge you less than S$570 with diving courses and accommodation? Please understand. For a detailed price list, please go to payabeach.c0m [Paya Beach Resort]

With regards to the condition of the room which belongs to the management of the resort, you may want to feedback to them about the condition. They are always prompt to clean up the place but I really don't know what happened when you said they didn't helped you at all.

4. Breakdown of cost
Although I had initially signed up for diving, I changed this to Non-diver as I was not feeling well and informed Sunnycove. I was told me that I shall go ahead as a non diver as I've paid the non refundable deposit of $100. The amount I was charged was $340.

This seems step as compared to other tours to Tioman ( Paya Beach Resort) which comes to a maximum of $160 maximum. Also, the lodge room which I shared with my 2 other people is RM$160 per night or SGD $22.41 per person Adding the one pool lesson which costs max SGD $60 ( the cost of the Discover Scuba Diving course as extracted from the sunnycove website). This would have only costs $220. Moreover, I had to rent my own snorkelling equipment when I snorkelled over at Tioman.
To be frank, when you didn't want to go for confined pool on the second day, I did inform your boyfriend that it's best that you don't go on the trip especially when you are not feeling well. Your boyfriend informed me that you insist of going and if I did not remember wrongly, it was your birthday that week too.

S$100 non-refundable deposit is for the PADI Open Water Diver manual with PIC certification. You paid a total of S$340 less S$100 is S$240 for the non-diver rate to the island. If I'm not wrong too, I asked if you will be taking the course in near future, if not I will refund you the PIC certification worth S$40 back to you and you agreed to get the refund. S$60 is for Discover Scuba Diving but the course you took was for PADI Open Water which requires an Instructor not Divemaster to conduct. Again, I hope you understand you cannot compare the price in this manner as we still need to pay the Instructor for his effort even though you didn't go through the entire pool session. It's fair for his effort and time. All in all, Sunny Cove had did our best in giving you the best discount because you were a friend of our instructor and we tried to refund you all the things you did not utilised. Please understand.


5. Terrible Customer Service
The resort had to have one of the worst customer service I had to contend with. From excitement for a new trip, it became exasperation when I was trying to get the itinerary. Matters just continued to get worse as I realized I had to stay in the lousiest resort IÃ×e been in my life with the clogged toilet, dirty room, unfriendly staff who refused to help me even though I asked for it.
Again, I will feedback this to the management of the resort as we strongly believe they should know this too. It takes two hands to clap and in order for us to support them in future, we hope they will also improve on those you had mentioned.


Overall, it was the most horrid and unpleasant trip in my entire life.

6.Lastly, it has been more than 2 months and my boyfriend hasn't received his PADI open water certification and there have been no updates from SunnyCove as to when he'll get it.
Urh, at the start. I think your boyfriend submitted his photo to us late. To be exact, he submitted his photo on the 7th November based on my email which is almost 1 month after passing the course. Please see below for a record that your boyfriend is already on PADI's record.

T*** S*** K*** DAVID 19 Oct 2008 4 Mar 1982 Open Water PIC Online 0812A78559 084410

PADI sends the card to you directly from PADI Australia and not from Sunny Cove to you. During mailing, sometimes the card can go missing. We had a couple of divers who didn't received their card since June and we had been actively chasing PADI certification department for a replacement card. We always make sure our divers receive their card if they had not yet received it. If your boyfriend still did not receive his card, please let us know so we can check with PADI.



Therefore, to all aspiring divers out there who are intending to get PADI certified, Please don't do it with Sunny Cove.

All the replies above are honest report from the Management of Sunny Cove. We strive to ensure all our divers get the most of what they had paid for and our 1200+ certified student can be our champion. Sometimes, things just go the wrong way even how meticulous you have been but of course we cannot say we are never wrong.

We fall, we get back up and make sure things don't happen again. I sincerely apologize to R*** (The complainant) for the inconvenience caused to you! If you have any further feedback, you're welcome to drop by our place with your boyfriend. We are happy to meet up.

 

[SunnyCove]

Great second post.

Did you take these complaints to the management of the company, and if so what was their response?

Hi Tassie,

We take complains and feedback from divers seriously. David, her boyfriend did voice about the ferry timing after the trip which we had already knew about it when it happened. This is why we are able to take steps to solve the problem immediately.

We have a black and white of the email between both parties. We apologized to all parties involved on the trip because of the things that were beyond our control. Complainant did not feedback any of those published to us at all hence I felt that divers should know the story from our side and ask around before making judgement call.

As an advocate to safety and quality of diving education, we strive to make sure everything are conducted within our means and standards laid down by PADI. We apologize for any shortcomings for things that are beyond our control.

Thanks!

 

[Zippsy]

SC, I wonder if it would help to set expectations better for people when they sign up for trips / courses. I believe for many trips & courses from Singapore it is pretty common to have the long, cramped shared-operator van / bus rides, hassles at immigration, ferry timing troubles, tide-caused boat transfers, weather and rough seas issues (particularly at that time of year), 4 to a room "basic" accomodations, etc. as well as limited pool time for training. While not spell it out clearly to people ahead of time so they can't complain later?

 

[arsenalgirl]

Hi Sunny Cove,

I would like to clarify on certain points with you. This would be my last post on this issue and I'll be only stating the facts. Moreover, I believe that divers out there would be able to use their discernment based on facts written above to make informed choices.=D


Throughout the post, I notice that SunnyCove seemed to indicate that most of the things that happened were not a result of poor planning but due to unforseen circumstances not within their control, doesnt this show that they're trying to absolve themselves of any blame?

Would divers/would-be-divers want to go on a trip with a dive school that indicates that " Oh things are usually not within our control, and sorry if you can't have a nice, proper trip because many things are not within our control"?


I will address this point by point:


Originally Posted by arsenalgirl
Based on the recent package ( Open Water certification) my boyfriend and I took from Sunnycove, I would like to warn everyone out there not to use this dive school based in Singapore. and Paya Beach Resort ( Tioman)
I would like to thank "someone" highly important from this forum for informing me of this thread. I thank your boyfriend and yourself for taking the course from Sunny Cove but there are things which I felt were under report and majority are beyond our control even if tons of planning were put in placed.

There were only 3 divers present on the trip that weekend. If the school finds it so difficult to plan a trip with only 3 people, how can they provide good service to more people?.

2.
1. Itinerary was not well planned and executed
There were several occurrences where the itinerary was changed at the last minute
Due to the unpredictable weather pattern in Malaysia, we had already indicated on our standard itinerary that it will be subjected to change when neccessary depending on the tide, weather and traffic condition. Unless we can control those variables, we can boldly state that we will reach in the specific timing. Hope you will understand.
Ž· itinerary This was passed to us only on Fri, 17 Oct, the very day we were set to go for the trip
There are times we cannot even confirm the trip till last minute because of the weather. We were informed of a bad storm and had only been able to confirm the trip last minute too.

Here, I would like to reiterate that we called up SunnyCove on the 17th Oct 2008 , the day before we were supposed to leave and its owner stated that we will be gettin the itenary soon. This was only provided to us at 12am midnight on 18th October 2008 and there was no mention of a bad storm in Tioman. There was no phone call/no email to inform us when we were going to receive the itenary too and we had to keep calling to find out for ourselves. .

Ž· Transport This was the biggest issue from the start to the end.

o Coach ride to Mersing From Tanjong Pagar, we literally had to squeeze in with about 10 people and luggage into a 7-seater van. Needless to say, there was hardly any breathing space left. if it was a short ride, we would have no issues. But this was a 3 hour ride to Mersing.
I don't recall your transportation to be a van. I had arranged for a coach for 40 pax with another dive centre who was also heading up to Malaysia. They are the operator in charge of the coach. They happened to be a regular member of this forum too and we can get them to confirm this. For industry sake, I'm not going to list the dive centre's name.
Please do note that whatever issues you have with the other dive operator. It shouldn't be passed to your customer. The mode of transport was indeed a 7 seater van in which at least 10 people were cramped in ( including dive gear and all luggages). In your email, it was stated that we shouldn't be bring too much luggage as there might be an issue with space. If you were under the assumption that the transport would be a bus for 40 person, why was that stated in the email?

o Return Ferry from Tioman - Misinformed on the return ferry from Tioman to (?). Instead of the given 2pm, the ferry only came at 5pm . Besides wasting 3 hours waiting , we had to arrange for our own transport (a cab)as we had we missed our ride to the causeway (JB Woodlands) . Unfortunately, the cab driver was unable to enter to Singapore and we had to walk by foot to cross the border



As mentioned earlier, we do not know the exact timing of the ferry even when we were told beforehand. The captain of the boat decides to arrive early or late. When I knew about the late departure from the island, I had personally requested the earlier transportation to wait for you guys. As they had waited for 2 hours, they had no choice but to leave and WE were the one who requested the dive centre to arrange your cab as opposed to what you had mentioned.

One thing we didn't know was the cab driver didn't had his passport. After hearing this when the rest of the group are back, we did apologize to the group plus your boyfriend. You may check with him on this. I think this is a little unfair for us as we did our part when we knew about the situation and yet was quoted as being ignorant about the whole matter. Hope to have your understanding.

One point that needs clarification is that the cab was kindly arranged for us by the other dive operator. If Sunny Cove knew about this cab arragnement all along and were sincerely apologetic, they would have apologised to us even before my boyfriend and the other diver who went on the trip with us called to feedback about having to walk across the causeway.

Ž· Room arrangement

o My boyfriend and I were surprised that we had to share a room with a complete stranger, another student at the lodge for 2 nights. This was a real shock as we were not informed in any matter either verbally or via emails.
All rooms are based on quad sharing. It's impossible for the price you had paid plus discount given to be a twin sharing price. I do apologize that perhaps this information was not stated clearly on the website.
o Not informed of the room type we would be in we were misguided into thinking that we will be residing in one of the deluxe rooms at the resort. We ended staying in a lodge full of flies and a choked faucet.
Sorry to say this but we didn't mislead you to think you will be getting the best of the best rooms in the resort. People are paying S$500 per room without transportation to and fro Singapore, marine park fees, rental of snorkeling equipment. How can we charge you less than S$570 with diving courses and accommodation? Please understand. For a detailed price list, please go to payabeach.c0m [Paya Beach Resort]
With regards to the condition of the room which belongs to the management of the resort, you may want to feedback to them about the condition. They are always prompt to clean up the place but I really don't know what happened when you said they didn't helped you at all.

Divers/would be divers can go to the Paya beach resort website to check on prices. The prices are definitely not SGD $500 even for a deluxe room without transportation. Do note that the prices are in RM. A quick check states that a deluxe room is RM400 which translates to SGD $168.
Let me provide a link: Paya Beach Resort

Ok Lastly, I would like to state that the photograph for PADI certification wasnt submitted late and it was because my bf wasnt informed that there was a need to submit a photograph.
We would appreciate if you guys can help check with PADI australia on the mailing status of the OW cert or is there anyway we can contact them ourselves?

To end this off, I really hope that based on this feedback, you guys can improve your customer service and work towards providing a better experience for divers/would be divers. =D

 

[SK]

arsenalgirl,i totally agree with your feedbacks regarding the poor level of service provided by SC.
me & my friend took a PADI Speciality course from SC(months before you and yes...we've given our feedback to SC management!), here is what we experenice:

1)itinerary was not well planned and executed - on the first day,we have to wait at mersing jetty for more than 2 hours without knowing what's happening...we only found out later that we are waiting for another group of divers from another dive centre cos we are sharing the same ferry...!should'nt we be well inform that we need to share/wait for the ferry with other dive centre..

2)room arrrangement - upon reaching paya beach resort @ 4am+, we were left out from the room allocation...SC only realised it when we inform them...we were then throw into a room whereby 4 guys had to share between a queen size and a SINGLE bed...!

3)non-professionalism from SC - we only found out during our first dive on the second day that the instructor from SC was on a different dive boat from us...again,like a unwanted child..we were throw to another instructor from another dive centre(which he had his own AWOD students)...should'nt we be informed that instructor from SC will not be taking us when we sign up for the course...!

4)safety - there were only 2 dive boats(well..i call it fishing boat cos there was no tank rack..no seats..no platform...) and it's share between 50~60 divers from 4 dive centres!

5)food from the resort - we are eating the same dish for lunch and dinner(only different is that lunch was serve while dinner is in buffet style)

6)certification - we had submitted our photos to SC via email two days after the course(claim from SC that e-submitting will be faster!)...but the fact is that we had not recieve our c.cards for more than a month!(base on our OWD,AWOD,speciality course...it only took 2 weeks for the c.cards to arrive even on postal mail submitting!)..SC then promised to send us the temporary c.cards which they never did!!!

arsenalgirl,you should continous to pick up diving(not with SC,of course)..you will love it!..and be warned..it's ADDICTIVE!!!

 

[SunnyCove]

Hi Sunny Cove,

I would like to clarify on certain points with you. This would be my last post on this issue and I'll be only stating the facts. Moreover, I believe that divers out there would be able to use their discernment based on facts written above to make informed choices.=D

I also believe that divers out there will be able to decide on their own. As dive centre operators out there, everyone will know they cannot please 100% of the divers out there. They can only try the best to minimize all possible errors but it's difficult to ensure 100% error free else there won't be any fatalities at all.


Throughout the post, I notice that SunnyCove seemed to indicate that most of the things that happened were not a result of poor planning but due to unforseen circumstances not within their control, doesnt this show that they're trying to absolve themselves of any blame?

We are not trying to push off the blame to things not beyond our control. For things we failed to do well, we did apologize and will take note to improve on it. Most of things were really beyond our control which if you think we are trying to absolve the blame, we gladly accept it then.

Would divers/would-be-divers want to go on a trip with a dive school that indicates that " Oh things are usually not within our control, and sorry if you can't have a nice, proper trip because many things are not within our control"?

I can't help but notice you kept attacking on things beyond the control of our jurisdiction. We had a diver who insist that being late for classes are the fault of the student as they did not plan their time properly and stakes that he will never be late. Sadly, he was late for both theory and confined pool due to traffic condition. I always thought, why can't everyone be nice to one another and understand that sometimes things are just beyond our control?

I will address this point by point:


Originally Posted by arsenalgirl
Based on the recent package ( Open Water certification) my boyfriend and I took from Sunnycove, I would like to warn everyone out there not to use this dive school based in Singapore. and Paya Beach Resort ( Tioman)
I would like to thank "someone" highly important from this forum for informing me of this thread. I thank your boyfriend and yourself for taking the course from Sunny Cove but there are things which I felt were under report and majority are beyond our control even if tons of planning were put in placed.

There were only 3 divers present on the trip that weekend. If the school finds it so difficult to plan a trip with only 3 people, how can they provide good service to more people?.

During the entire discussion, there wasn't any point that states that we found it difficult to plan a trip for just 3 person. In fact, Avneesh and David understand the point and accepted our apologies. We tried contacting you after the trip but you did not want to listen.

2.
1. Itinerary was not well planned and executed
There were several occurrences where the itinerary was changed at the last minute
Due to the unpredictable weather pattern in Malaysia, we had already indicated on our standard itinerary that it will be subjected to change when neccessary depending on the tide, weather and traffic condition. Unless we can control those variables, we can boldly state that we will reach in the specific timing. Hope you will understand.
Ž· itinerary This was passed to us only on Fri, 17 Oct, the very day we were set to go for the trip
There are times we cannot even confirm the trip till last minute because of the weather. We were informed of a bad storm and had only been able to confirm the trip last minute too.

Here, I would like to reiterate that we called up SunnyCove on the 17th Oct 2008 , the day before we were supposed to leave and its owner stated that we will be gettin the itenary soon. This was only provided to us at 12am midnight on 18th October 2008 and there was no mention of a bad storm in Tioman. There was no phone call/no email to inform us when we were going to receive the itenary too and we had to keep calling to find out for ourselves. .

A sample itinerary was published online all along. We cannot confirm the exact one till the last moment. This was also one of the reason the ferry was late due to the tide.

Ž· Transport This was the biggest issue from the start to the end.

o Coach ride to Mersing From Tanjong Pagar, we literally had to squeeze in with about 10 people and luggage into a 7-seater van. Needless to say, there was hardly any breathing space left. if it was a short ride, we would have no issues. But this was a 3 hour ride to Mersing.
I don't recall your transportation to be a van. I had arranged for a coach for 40 pax with another dive centre who was also heading up to Malaysia. They are the operator in charge of the coach. They happened to be a regular member of this forum too and we can get them to confirm this. For industry sake, I'm not going to list the dive centre's name.
Please do note that whatever issues you have with the other dive operator. It shouldn't be passed to your customer. The mode of transport was indeed a 7 seater van in which at least 10 people were cramped in ( including dive gear and all luggages). In your email, it was stated that we shouldn't be bring too much luggage as there might be an issue with space. If you were under the assumption that the transport would be a bus for 40 person, why was that stated in the email?

Since this had already resorted to this. You may kindly confirm with Alex Bryant from Planet Scuba on this issue. The transport was arranged by them and Shafe was the Instructor who was on the trip and you guys were introduced to him at Tanjong Pagar.

For a start, I never pass down responsibility to divers. I already stated that we liaised with the other dive operator on the van. There was a coach when we were there hence I had assumed you guys will be taking that. Alex didn't inform me of which transportation you guys took and how many people were squeezed in.

The email about not bringing too much luggage is a "standard operating procedure". Regardless if we have a coach to 30 pax, we will still inform divers not to bring too much luggage.

o Return Ferry from Tioman - Misinformed on the return ferry from Tioman to (?). Instead of the given 2pm, the ferry only came at 5pm . Besides wasting 3 hours waiting , we had to arrange for our own transport (a cab)as we had we missed our ride to the causeway (JB Woodlands) . Unfortunately, the cab driver was unable to enter to Singapore and we had to walk by foot to cross the border



As mentioned earlier, we do not know the exact timing of the ferry even when we were told beforehand. The captain of the boat decides to arrive early or late. When I knew about the late departure from the island, I had personally requested the earlier transportation to wait for you guys. As they had waited for 2 hours, they had no choice but to leave and WE were the one who requested the dive centre to arrange your cab as opposed to what you had mentioned.

One thing we didn't know was the cab driver didn't had his passport. After hearing this when the rest of the group are back, we did apologize to the group plus your boyfriend. You may check with him on this. I think this is a little unfair for us as we did our part when we knew about the situation and yet was quoted as being ignorant about the whole matter. Hope to have your understanding.

One point that needs clarification is that the cab was kindly arranged for us by the other dive operator. If Sunny Cove knew about this cab arragnement all along and were sincerely apologetic, they would have apologised to us even before my boyfriend and the other diver who went on the trip with us called to feedback about having to walk across the causeway.

If we didn't know about this, I wouldn't have know that the dive operator will not be waiting for you guys anymore. I didn't know whether the cab driver had his passport or not. Let's be fair on this.

Ž· Room arrangement

o My boyfriend and I were surprised that we had to share a room with a complete stranger, another student at the lodge for 2 nights. This was a real shock as we were not informed in any matter either verbally or via emails.
All rooms are based on quad sharing. It's impossible for the price you had paid plus discount given to be a twin sharing price. I do apologize that perhaps this information was not stated clearly on the website.
o Not informed of the room type we would be in we were misguided into thinking that we will be residing in one of the deluxe rooms at the resort. We ended staying in a lodge full of flies and a choked faucet.
Sorry to say this but we didn't mislead you to think you will be getting the best of the best rooms in the resort. People are paying S$500 per room without transportation to and fro Singapore, marine park fees, rental of snorkeling equipment. How can we charge you less than S$570 with diving courses and accommodation? Please understand. For a detailed price list, please go to payabeach.c0m [Paya Beach Resort]
With regards to the condition of the room which belongs to the management of the resort, you may want to feedback to them about the condition. They are always prompt to clean up the place but I really don't know what happened when you said they didn't helped you at all.

Divers/would be divers can go to the Paya beach resort website to check on prices. The prices are definitely not SGD $500 even for a deluxe room without transportation. Do note that the prices are in RM. A quick check states that a deluxe room is RM400 which translates to SGD $168.
Let me provide a link:

RM400 per pax per night. Please check carefully. They have a package which is RM525 per pax for 3D2N. We are very transparent in our pricing hence we never over-charged our divers. As mentioned by Arsenalgirl, please do go doublecheck with the operator if in doubt.


Ok Lastly, I would like to state that the photograph for PADI certification wasnt submitted late and it was because my bf wasnt informed that there was a need to submit a photograph.
We would appreciate if you guys can help check with PADI australia on the mailing status of the OW cert or is there anyway we can contact them ourselves?

To end this off, I really hope that based on this feedback, you guys can improve your customer service and work towards providing a better experience for divers/would be divers. =D

Like I said, we welcome you to drop by to solve any unhappy issue you still have.

 

[SunnyCove]

arsenalgirl,i totally agree with your feedbacks regarding the poor level of service provided by SC.
me & my friend took a PADI Speciality course from SC(months before you and yes...we've given our feedback to SC management!), here is what we experenice:

1)itinerary was not well planned and executed - on the first day,we have to wait at mersing jetty for more than 2 hours without knowing what's happening...we only found out later that we are waiting for another group of divers from another dive centre cos we are sharing the same ferry...!should'nt we be well inform that we need to share/wait for the ferry with other dive centre..

2)room arrrangement - upon reaching paya beach resort @ 4am+, we were left out from the room allocation...SC only realised it when we inform them...we were then throw into a room whereby 4 guys had to share between a queen size and a SINGLE bed...!

3)non-professionalism from SC - we only found out during our first dive on the second day that the instructor from SC was on a different dive boat from us...again,like a unwanted child..we were throw to another instructor from another dive centre(which he had his own AWOD students)...should'nt we be informed that instructor from SC will not be taking us when we sign up for the course...!

4)safety - there were only 2 dive boats(well..i call it fishing boat cos there was no tank rack..no seats..no platform...) and it's share between 50~60 divers from 4 dive centres!

5)food from the resort - we are eating the same dish for lunch and dinner(only different is that lunch was serve while dinner is in buffet style)

6)certification - we had submitted our photos to SC via email two days after the course(claim from SC that e-submitting will be faster!)...but the fact is that we had not recieve our c.cards for more than a month!(base on our OWD,AWOD,speciality course...it only took 2 weeks for the c.cards to arrive even on postal mail submitting!)..SC then promised to send us the temporary c.cards which they never did!!!

arsenalgirl,you should continous to pick up diving(not with SC,of course)..you will love it!..and be warned..it's ADDICTIVE!!!

Dear Stephen,

I don't wish to say more for a fact, people will say we are trying to absolve our blame. I can assure you things had changed and the instructor responsible is sack!

Also, just to let you know you're not an unwanted diver. Our Instructor volunteered to teach their Open Water while their Instructor volunteered to teach ours Specialty. It doesn't mean their Open water divers are unwanted by their dive school. Singapore's dive operators are a small knitted group that every instructors help one another if needed. Just like family help family members.

With regards to the mailing from PADI, I've given up hope. Please take all your mailing matters directly with PADI (certsdep@padi.com.au) as we have no say on how they send and how some received it fast and some don't even for several months and we had to get PADI to reprint and resend.

Thanks.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

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